Medvedev praises U.S. stance on Georgia MAP
28 November
Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said he was pleased with the U.S. decision to drop its push for granting NATO Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine. “I am pleased that finally common sense has prevailed – although, unfortunately, it happened at the end of the present U.S. administration’s [term in office],” Medvedev told journalists during the visit in Havana on November 27. “In any case, it is the current state of affairs; whatever the reason is – whether the Americans have listened to the Europeans or something else, the most important is that this idea is no longer pushed forth so ferociously and senselessly as it has been done within past several years,” Medvedev added. Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, said [1] on November 26, that there was no need at this stage to discuss granting MAP to Georgia and Ukraine. She, however, also said that Britain had an alternative proposal on how to proceed with the NATO’s Bucharest summit decision, which says that Georgia and Ukraine will become NATO members sometime in the future. Davit Bakradze, the Georgian Parliamentary Chairman, said on November 28, that Medvedev’s remarks did not reflect the U.S. position in full. “To see only the part of this statement [by Rice], which says that no MAP can be granted and not to see the other part, which speaks about joining NATO through using other mechanisms, is an attempt to accept desirable as reality,” Bakradze told journalists. In his remarks on the matter, Medvedev also said: “Let these countries [Georgia and Ukraine] themselves decide what they want. I have already numerously said – let them hold referendums first - no such [referendums] have been held – and then move wherever they want to.” 77% of voters in Georgia said in the January 5 plebiscite that they favoured NATO membership. (Civil Georgia)

Saakashvili testifies before war commission
28 November
President Saakashvili testified before the parliamentary commission studying the August war on November 28. He told the commission that his decision on August 7 to launch a military operation was “inevitable” because the Russian troops were already advancing into breakaway South Ossetia and because the Georgian-controlled villages inside the breakaway region were under heavy shelling. Saakashvili said that the August war to a certain extend had “complicated” restoration of the Georgia’s territorial integrity, but on the other hand, he said, it made the process even “easier” because the war demonstrated that Russia was not at all “peacekeeper” but “an aggressor.” “Today everyone recognizes that Russians are occupiers and whatever inconvenient this truth might be for the world, that is the fact. This is a new reality for Georgia,” he said and also added that Georgia was neither loser nor winner in this war, because the struggle was still ongoing. He strongly denied allegations voiced by Georgia’s former ambassador to Russia, Erosi Kitsmarishvili, and said it was “a mistake” to appoint him on that post. Foreign diplomats accredited in Tbilisi were invited by the Georgian authorities to attend the hearings. (Civil Georgia)

Uzbekistan Closes Border with Tajikistan, with no explanation
1 December
The Uzbek government has closed all border checkpoints with Tajikistan without any explanation. A Tajik government official told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that it was not informed by Uzbek officials about the closure, which began on November 27. Some analysts say the border is being closed ahead of Uzbekistan's Constitution Day on December 8.Tashkent has in the past closed its border checkpoints with neighboring countries on the eve of official holidays, such as Independence Day, or a presidential election.Uzbekistan introduced a visa regime with Tajikistan in 2001 that made travel between the two countries more difficult. There have not been any flight connections between Uzbekistan for several years. Ethnic Tajiks are estimated to make up between 5 and 10 percent of the population of Uzbekistan. (RFE/RL)

Georgian intellectuals do not trust Georgian parliamentary commission probing Aug events
1 December
The work of the Georgian parliamentary commission probing the August crisis in the Caucasus is another "PR-action"  of  authorities, says the Georgian Academy public organization, bringing together Georgian intellectuals. "Current the authorities are ready to declare all those who do not agree with their version of the beginning of the war in the Tskhinvali district  as  Russian  spies  and betrayers," the organization said in a statement published on Monday. According   to   the   document,   the   creation   of provisional parliamentary commission  was  aimed  at  the  goal  of hiding the real circumstances and results of the August events. "As to [Georgian President] Mikheil Saakashvili's attendance of the Friday commission's meeting and his almost five-hour 'confession,' it is quite apparent  that it did not served the interests in establishing the truth, but  was  another  PR-action  indented  for internal and external use," the statement reads. The  parliamentary  commission  was  created  in order to "hide the criminal  mistakes  of  current  Georgian  authorities, that is why this commission is out of trust," the Academy said. (Interfax)

Crimean Tatars Rally for Return of ancestral land
2 December
Some 2,000 repatriated Crimean Tatars gathered in front of the Crimean Supreme Council in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol to demand the return of land they were forced to leave several decades ago. Daniyal Ametov, a leader of the protest, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that the demonstration is against Crimean authorities for "their responsibility in creating the land problems for the Crimean Tatars." The protesters ended the rally after negotiations with local legislators, but promised to gather again on December 15 if their demands are not met. Crimean Tatars are considered an indigenous nation of the Crimean Peninsula. Tens of thousands were deported by Soviet authorities to Central Asia in the 1940s. Deportees and their families began returning to Crimea in the 1990s, demanding that their lands and properties be returned to them. (RFE/RL)

Georgia will finally become NATO member – parliament
2 December
Any  of  the patterns of Georgia's integration  with  NATO,  proposed  by  the Alliance's member-states, is acceptable  for  Georgia,  Georgian parliamentary speaker David Bakradze said. "Georgia's  integration  with  NATO could proceed along two lines," Bakradze said to journalists on Tuesday. The first one, proposed by the United States and Britain, envisions the country's  integration  with  NATO  without  getting  the Membership Action Plan (MAP). But MAP is mandatory in the plan proposed by Germany, he said. "Most of our allies support the British plan of Georgia's accession to NATO," he also said. "What matters  most  to Georgia is not the mechanism to be used in the accession, but that Georgia will finally become a NATO member by all means, something even skeptical-minded countries say," he noted.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai, however, said to Imedi television station  in Brussels on Tuesday, that it would be premature to speculate on what   decision   the   foreign   ministers   would  make,  although, importantly,  NATO  remains  adherent to the resolution of the Bucharest summit that the doors of the Alliance remain open to Georgia. NATO's foreign ministers are expected to begin discussing prospects of Georgia and Ukraine's integration with the Alliance in a few hours in Brussels. (Interfax)

Poti Port becomes wholly owned by UAE’s Emirate
2 December
Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti has become wholly owned by the Investment Authority of the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) emirate after purchasing 49% of stake from the Georgian state for USD 65 million. Eka Sharashidze, the Georgian economy minister, signed the agreement with RAK Investment Authority [2] (RAKIA) on December 2. RAKIA took over the port’s controlling stake for USD 90 million in April, 2008 and pledges to develop free economic zone on 300 hectares of land in Poti and in addition to build a new port terminal on a 100 hectare site. (Civil Georgia)

Tajiks Seize Biggest Drugs Haul Since Independence
3 December
Tajik security forces have seized more than 500 kilograms of drugs in the biggest drugs haul since independence from the Soviet Union, the Interior Ministry has said. The impoverished country lies on the main trafficking route out of neighboring Afghanistan, the world's top producer of opium and its refined form, heroin. The ministry said a Soviet-era truck loaded with 530 kilograms of drugs was intercepted while traveling from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, to the northern city of Khujand. "The driver...has been arrested. Hundreds of kilograms of hashish and dozens of heroin were discovered in the truck's body," said a ministry spokesman. "It is the biggest haul in terms of volume that has ever been seized in Tajikistan." Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tajikistan has struggled to contain heroin smuggling from Afghanistan, with poverty and unemployment making it an easy conduit for trafficking. After passing through Tajikistan, batches of heroin are spirited to the north across Central Asia and Russia until they reach the streets of London or Paris where a kilogram of heroin can fetch as much as $300,000.  (Reuters)

Uzbek Police Detain women on extremist charges
5 December
Police in Tashkent detained 28 women this week for alleged religious extremism, and their relatives have alleged that the detainees were abused in custody. An unnamed source in the Tashkent police told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that two of the women are regional leaders of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir party.  The arrested women are reportedly related to people who have been sentenced for involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir activities in the past. Shahlo Sultonova, the mother-in-law of one female detainee, told RFE/RL that police tortured her daughter-in-law in an effort to get her to make a confession. She added that the detained group of women was filmed for a pornographic video and were warned that similar videos would be shot if they did not confess to a crime. The chief of the police investigation on the case confirmed that the women had been arrested but gave no further details. (RFE/RL)

Afghan jail operation kills eight prisoners in Kabul

5 December
Eight prisoners were killed and 15 others were wounded after Afghan security forces clashed with inmates during a search operation in an Afghan prison near Kabul, an official said. Violence broke out on December 4 when security forces started to search inmates suspected of holding knives and guns in the Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul. "The search operation is still going on and the situation is under control," Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai told Reuters, adding that three policemen were among the wounded. On December 4, a prisoner from inside Pul-i-Charkhi told Reuters by telephone Afghan security forces used gun fire against the inmates, many of whom are suspected insurgents, as they resisted the search operation. A series of bloody riots have taken place in recent years at Pul-i-Charkhi jail and some months back Taliban insurgents freed several hundreds of jailed Taliban militants in an attack on a prison in the southern province of Kandahar. Separately, two soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan on December 4, an ISAF statement said. Some 14 militants were killed by U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces in the southern province of Helmand during operations against suspected insurgents, U.S. military said. (Reuters)

Afghan, Pakistani Presidents meet in Turkey
5 December

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari  are meeting in Istanbul for the second set of talks sponsored by Turkey in an effort to bring the two neighbors closer. The two leaders are expected to concentrate on developing a joint strategy to improve security in their joint border region. Pakistan's western Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the adjoining North West Frontier Province have become strongholds for the hard-line Taliban, who are waging insurgencies in both countries.
In the past, Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of not doing enough to stop militants crossing the border to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. But the working relations between Afghan and Pakistani presidents have improved markedly since Zardari assumed office in September. Turkey, which has 860 soldiers serving in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, is keen to use its political clout to promote regional cooperation. In the earlier round of Turkish-sponsored talks, in April 2007, Karzai and then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met in Ankara and pledged to step up joint efforts against the Taliban. Sebghatullah Sanjar, Karzai's chief of policy, told RFE/RL that because Turkey is a Muslim country with good ties to both Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is in a position to play a constructive role. "This time again -- continuing his efforts from the past - the Turkish president is trying to help the peace process in Afghanistan," Sanjar said. "That's why he has invited the Afghan and Pakistani presidents to Turkey. I am hopeful that it will be a significant summit and will contribute to promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan." The Turkish effort follows on the heels of recent Saudi efforts to broker peace between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Over the past seven years, Karzai has repeatedly blamed "elements in the Pakistani security establishment" for fomenting trouble in Afghanistan -- either by supporting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda or turning a blind eye to their cross-border activities.The charges resulted in a bitter relationship between Karzai and Musharraf, who often engaged in a public war of words through their media statements. But the Karzai administration says it now has strong reasons to believe that the current Pakistani president, his administration, and the parliament are serious about seeking a solution to the terrorist threat in the region. Karzai and Zardari will also meet separately with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to strengthen their respective economic and political ties to Turkey. (RFE/RL)

BTC route seismically active
5 December
Portions of the Azeri route for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline were constructed over seismically active areas, a geological study said Friday. BP-Azerbaijan, the overseer of the BTC pipeline, funded a study by the Institute of Geology of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, AMEA, to examine the geodynamics of the pipeline route, the Azerbaijan Business Center reported. "Following the work we revealed seismically dangerous areas along the pipeline," AMEA Director Akif Alizade said. A final report to BP Azerbaijan is expected by Dec. 20. AMEA said it plans to expand its survey to the BTC sections in Georgia and Turkey if BP Azerbaijan is satisfied with the initial report. Oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea feeds BTC.  In November Kazakhstan said it would ferry 120 million barrels of oil per year through the pipeline, marking the first time oil from outside Azerbaijan was slated for BTC. The 1,099-mile pipeline is the second-longest crude oil route in the world. (UPI)

People smugglers “thrive” on Iran-Afghan border
7 December
People smugglers are thriving on both sides of the Afghan-Iranian border, a United Nations report has said, running operations that are costing some $200 million a year in lost visa revenue. Since 2002, 858,000 Afghans have voluntarily returned home from Iran, despite wage levels in Iran that are four times higher than in Afghanistan, the UN said. Around 1 million Afghan refugees still live in Iran. The report, funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), found that almost 80 percent of returning Afghans questioned in a survey had paid a smuggler to get them to Iran. "A thriving smuggling network supports an irregular labor migration flow to Iran.... This network has thrived despite restrictive policies put in place by the government of Iran," Nassim Majidi, the report's project manager, told a news conference. "What was very interesting to us was that the smugglers were on both sides of the border," Majidi said. Most smugglers were working from Nimroz in southwestern Afghanistan, but were cooperating with colleagues in Iran, he said. It costs Afghan migrants around $360 to hire a smuggler to traffic them into Iran, compared with the $740 price tag for a visa to Iran, the UN-ILO report said, earning the smugglers some $94 million a year. "Smugglers do not create migration, it's the need of migration that creates the business.... I think we can fully understand people are looking to find jobs to support their families," Marc Vansteenkiste, chief technical adviser of the ILO, told the news conference. The report, which questioned 784 Afghans in four provinces who had returned from Iran since 2002, also noted the impact Afghan migrants in Iran have on their home economy through remittances. It estimated that $500 million worth of remittances from Afghans working illegally in Iran, 98 percent of whom are men, are sent back to their families in Afghanistan each year, equivalent to 6 percent of the country's GDP. Vansteenkiste said talks were under way with countries such as South Korea, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to take unemployed, semi-skilled or skilled Afghan men to work in the construction industry. (Reuters)

Taliban Urges Western Troops to Leave Afghanistan
7 December
Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar has urged Western forces to take a "golden opportunity" to leave Afghanistan before thousands of their troops were killed in the Islamist group's renewed insurgency. Omar, believed by Western intelligence to be hiding in the mountainous border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, also said a planned increase in U.S. troops would fail to curb violence and would instead fuel the insurgency. "I would like to remind the illegal invaders who have invaded our defenseless and oppressed people that it is a golden opportunity for you at present to hammer out an exit strategy for your forces," Omar said on the day of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic festival of sacrifice, in his yearly message. "The current armed clashes which now number into tens, will spiral up to hundreds of armed clashes. Your current casualties of hundreds will jack up in to the thousands," he added in an e-mailed statement. Civilian casualties caused by foreign air strikes have become the biggest source of tension between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers. Omar said any increase in civilian deaths would help boost the Taliban's insurgency. "The more you destroy our people's houses, the more you martyr our people, the more you will face the wrathful reaction of our mujahedin," he said. Taliban suicide attacks killed at least 200 civilians last year, undermining public faith in the ability of the government and international troops to bring security to a country that has seen more or less continual war for the last 30 years. The United States is sending an extra 3,000 troops to Afghanistan in January and is considering plans to dispatch up to 20,000 more in the next 12 to 18 months. "The rationale will not seem cogent even to your own people, and because of your blind bombardments, which usually result in the murder of defenseless Muslims, men, women, and children, you will not escape the wrath of the Islamic Ummah," he said. Omar also blamed the global financial crisis on the United States and said it had left a "negative impact on the globe," resulting in "the collective duty of all" to derail what he called "this war-mongering trend." (Reuters)

Iran test-fires new missile from warship
7 December
Iran's military test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile from a warship as part of exercises along a strategic shipping route, state media have reported. Iran launched six days of naval war games on December 2 in the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf region amid tension with the United States and Israel, which have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to end a row over Tehran's nuclear work. Iran has said that, if pushed, it could close the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the gulf and through which about 40 percent of the world's traded oil passes. "The surface-to-surface Nasr-2 missile was tested in the [Sea of] Oman operational region," state radio reported, adding that the test took place on December 6. "The Nasr-2 was fired from a warship and hit its target at a distance of 30 kilometers and destroyed it," the official news agency IRNA said, adding it was the first test of the new, medium-range missile. The West accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear warheads, a charge Tehran denies. It insists that it wants to master nuclear technology to generate electricity so that it can export more of its huge oil and gas reserves. Washington, which has its Fifth Fleet based in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain, has pledged to keep shipping lanes open. Experts say Iran's navy would be no match for U.S. technology but could still create havoc in the waterway. (Reuters)

Azeri crude down for January through BTC
8 December
Transports of crude oil from Azerbaijan through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline are expected to drop by 213,000 barrels per day in January, officials said. Officials with the BTC pipeline consortium said Azeri crude would reach the terminal Ceyhan port on the Mediterranean at a rate of 580,000 barrels per day starting with January deliveries, the Platts news agency reported Monday. BP-Azerbaijan and the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan hold controlling shares in the BTC pipeline consortium. Azeri crude production dropped from top production levels of more than 900,000 bpd in October following disruptions at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field complex in the Caspian Sea. BTC officials said the declines in production were not due to operational obstacles, however. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, said in November it would make its debut in BTC by bringing 120 million barrels of crude per year through the 1,099-mile pipeline. (UPI)

 OSCE Karabakh Mediators Hoping For Sniper Withdrawal
8 December
The French cochair of the OSCE Minsk Group says that Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to pull their snipers away from the front line dividing Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh by the new year. Bernard Fassie told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service today that the move is seen as a confidence-building measure which Yerevan and Baku agreed to in signing the Moscow declaration in early November. Fassier says France, Russia, and the United States called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to fulfill measures such as withdrawing their snipers in a declaration signed by the Russian and French foreign ministers, Bernard Kouchner and Sergei Lavrov, as well as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, on December 4. Fassie said "We are expecting a positive answer from all the people in charge of this question in order to preserve as many lives as possible." He added that Baku and Yerevan are expected to finalize work on the basic principles of a settlement by the middle of next year in order to start work on a peace agreement. (RFE/RL)

Berlin, Paris urge Uzbeks to let right groups

9 December
Germany and France have written a letter to the government of Uzbekistan, urging it to allow a Human Rights Watch (HRW) representative to work in the country. In the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade and German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said Uzbekistan should grant work accreditation to HRW representative Igor Vorontsov. Human Rights Watch said in July that Uzbekistan had barred Vorontsov from the country despite the fact that the EU had made accreditation of an HRW representative a condition for the lifting of sanctions on the Central Asian state. "We would like to inform you that this decision has caused considerable disappointment and serious concern for us," Yade and Erler said in their letter. "We would be very grateful if you could find a quick solution, through which Human Rights Watch can send an accredited representative to Tashkent as soon as possible, allowing it to continue its work in Uzbekistan," the letter, dated November 20 and addressed to Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov, said. Human Rights Watch has said Vorontsov was denied work accreditation and told by the Uzbek authorities while he was abroad that he would not be allowed to return to the country. Rights groups have been upset by a gradual easing of EU sanctions on Uzbekistan despite a lack of progress on rights. The European Union agreed in October to end most remaining sanctions on gas-rich Uzbekistan, citing progress in human rights. The 27-member bloc imposed sanctions on Uzbekistan in 2005, including visa bans on top officials, in response to the killing of demonstrators in the town of Andijon that May. A separate arms embargo on Uzbekistan remains in place. (Reuters)

Prominent civil rights activist released from Turkmen jail
9 December
Prominent Turkmen civil rights activist Valeri Pal has been released from prison.
Pal was released after Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov signed a decree granting amnesty to him on the eve of Neutrality Day, usually marked in Turkmenistan on December 12. Pal is a computer engineer who assisted Turkmen rights activists in using Internet technology to distribute information from Turkmenistan around the world. He was detained in February and found guilty of embezzlement three months later. Pal was sentenced to 12 years in prison. More people are expected to be released due to the presidential decree. Farid Tukhbatulin, chairman of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, a Turkmen group working in exile in Europe, was quoted by Reuters as saying Pal "is seriously ill, but at least he is at home now." The nature of Pal's illness is not clear. Pal's release comes ahead of December 14 parliamentary elections in Turkmenistan, a one-party state that tolerates no dissent but which says the vote will highlight its commitment to democratic reform. (RFE/RL)

Shots fired at OSCE patrol vehicle
10 December
An OSCE patrol’s armored vehicle was fired at close to the Georgian village of Khviti, few kilometers away from the South Ossetian administrative border, the Georgian Interior Ministry said. It said that the shots were fired “from the direction of the territory controlled by the [South] Ossetian side.” OSCE Mission in Georgia has confirmed that the firing took place. “A firing incident has taken place involving an unarmed OSCE monitoring patrol,” OSCE mission’s spokesperson, Martha Freeman, told Civil.Ge. “The full details are being looked into.” Both OSCE mission and the Georgian Interior Ministry said that there were no casualties as a result of the incident. The Georgian television showed pictures of the OSCE patrol’s SUV, which was hit by bullets.  Vladimer Jugeli, a local police chief, said the OSCE vehicle was hit by ten bullets. (Civil Georgia)

Head of Georgian Church Meets Medvedev
10 December
Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on December 9. Ilia II is visiting Moscow where he paid final farewell to Russia’s late Patriarch Alexy II. Ilia II conducted a prayer at the funeral ceremony in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. “I have met with President Medvedev. He is very well disposed towards [resolving] those problems which we have [in relations]. I think we will have good results,” Ilia II told a group of journalists in Moscow after the meeting. The Kremlin issued a one-sentence press-release saying that the meeting was held. The Georgian television station, Rustavi 2, reported that the meeting lasted for 45 minutes.  The Georgian Orthodox Church delegation visited Moscow a month ago and met with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Grigory Karasin, which was the first official contact between the two countries after the August war. (Civil Georgia)